Gas price report in pipeline

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, April 21: The oil ministry is expected to outline the steps taken to implement the cabinet’s decisions on natural gas price in its response to a status report sought by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The reply would point out the steps taken by the ministry to implement the cabinet decisions and how a hike in the gas price based on the Rangarajan formula was disallowed by the Election Commission,” officials said.

The status report would update the new government on the decisions taken.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had, first on June 27 and then on December 19 last year, decided to price domestic natural gas, including coal-bed methane and shale gas, at an average of international hub rates and the cost of importing LNG.

The new price of around $8.3 per million British thermal units was to be effective from April 1. On December 19, the CCEA decided that for Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields in KG-D6, where output has missed targets, operator RIL will have to give a bank guarantee equivalent to the incremental revenue it will get from the new price.

The Election Commission, however, had asked the government to defer the price hike as the matter was sub-judice. The new rate was applicable for both public and private oil producers.